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Turntable advice / opinion on setup / sound.

Hello all you analog experts. I am seeking some advice, opinions and direction to try, based on my tastes and setup. 

I’m not loving my current TT sound but there are variables that could cause this. For reference, my favorite TT I ever owned was the ClearAudio Champion Level 2 (wish I never sold it) because it was warm and had a huge stage. 

  1. I listen to every style of music, smooth jazz to hard metal. 
  2. I have to turn the volume way up to get the get the level I like which at times has hiss and a tiny bit of hum. Compared to digital sources which have none of these issues. 
  3. I find this setup to lack huge stage and warmth. 

My current system is:

  1. Rega Planar 8 w/ Alpheta 2 MC cart.  
  2. Cambridge Audio -> Alva Duo Phono Pre amp
  3. Mark Levinson -> No 585 Amp. 
  4. Martin Logan 15a Renaissance -> 8FT apart/ 3ft off the front wall and 3 FT from each side wall. I sit 9FT away from the speakers.  

The turntables I am considering are:

1) Musical Fidelity -> M8XTT

What cart would you use?

2) Michell Audio -> Gyro SE Turntable

3) Clear Audio Champion Level 2

Thank you all in advance for any guidance and opinions you can offer. 

necrosuit
dirkbusche
24 posts
 

Its the cambridge duo phono, not the level of the other components

elliottbnewcombjr
7,742 posts
 

All this Rega Praise,

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Yet, who can/will answer this?

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It would be nice to know what the RB880 arm’s null point distances are, for people who do not have the protractor

overhang is 14.5 mm

inner null point _______ mm?

outer null point _______ mm?

lewm
14,671 posts
 

It might be nice to know those values but not necessary if you know P2S and overhang and own any decent protractor. Without a protractor it would be tedious at best to work backward from null points.

lewm
14,671 posts
 

You can download and print an arc protractor on line, for free.

lewm
14,671 posts
 

Here on Vinyl Engine, for only one example of free protractors available.  Just be sure your printer is set up for a 1:1 ratio between image and copy.  Anyway, it further occurs to me that there ARE no set null points for any given tonearm.  The null point locations will further depend upon the chosen alignment algorithm, e.g., Stevenson, Baerwald, Lofgren, etc. And of course headshell offset angle. And all of this assumes you have zero zenith error between stylus and cantilever.

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